Optimizing Your Website for Search
A website is only as good as its content.
Search engines have the ability to recognize the good content from the bad. They are looking for relevancy and accuracy, however the question is not whether or not your content is good, but rather if your content is optimized for the search engines. The art of search engine optimization (SEO) is quickly evolving into a form of marketing, and the success of your website greatly depends on your rankings. Whenever content is going to be posted on your website, it is important that it be seen by your SEO professional to make sure that you are maximizing the value of your content. One thing to always remember, search engine rankings are a popularity contest and your competitors are taking the same steps you are to ensure they land on the first page. In order to get ahead in this competition, you can’t afford to miss out on any opportunities.
Google Wants You to Interact
Google wants to see that you are making an effort to reach out to your audience. This is typically a job of the Public Relations (PR) department. However, Google and other search engines like it take company outreach into affect when determining your rankings. Your SEO specialist should be involved in the company outreach process, especially when it comes to social media super giants such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ etc.
Design is in the Details
What you see is what you get, and Google wants users to experience nothing but the best. Google is constantly learning and improving, it knows what is aesthetically appealing, and knows what makes people hit the back button faster than the page can finish loading. If your design does not sit well with Google, you can be certain your rankings will suffer. Websites from the early ages of web design or sites that take too long to load will lessen your chances of appearing on the first page, the same goes for pages with sloppy, unorganized coding. Search engines will look for branding within your site and will even check to see the number of advertisements you have. It’s common sense why your SEO professional must be involved in your site’s design, structure and coding—who better to think like the search engines than those who work with them?
Analytics
George Orwell said it best in the novel 1984, “Big Brother is watching you.” Granted search engines aren’t watching your every move in order to control the way you think, they are interested in knowing what you are doing and why you are doing it. Search engines are constantly learning, but in order to learn they need something to study. Search engines not only have the ability to measure conversion and bounce rates, but also pinpoint how long the average user spends on your site and what your click through rates are. This information is important when Google is determining your ranking—and what is important to Google is important to you when it comes to SEO.
Give Them What They Want
Search engines are constantly working hard to ensure the users have the best experience online. While Google is busy trying to win the users over, you should be diligently working to win the heart of Google. You want to make things as easy as possible for Google while supplying as much information as possible for the users. It is important to always think several steps ahead, keeping SEO in mind through every step of the way. SEO is a form of marketing, and it is your job to maximize as many aspects of your marketing campaign as possible to give the search engines what it is they, and their users, are looking for. The easier you are to work with, the more the search engines will want to work with you.
Autumn Eustis joined the Discovery Communications Group in September of 2011 as a search engine marketing associate.
